"I understand now—I was sad that you will be affected by this, Nectus. Don't be. Such a small number of deaths is really a cause for celebration."
"Oh. Uh…"
I turned away, now full of more mixed feelings. And blushing a little.
Although I was sad—it didn't change the joy Ambrosia's presence and her care for gave . Even her sotis almost heartless personality was really growing on .
"I wish I had your optimism. Or is this more of a pessimism?"
"Whichever of these ans that I make the best choices for the hive."
I chuckled.
"Amby, I think the word you are looking for is 'communism'."
"So, it's a communist decision if it ans it's best for the hive and our empire?"
I scratched my cheek.
"Not… exactly… Ah, I'm too tired to explain it properly today. I just want to go to bed… You should get so sleep, too! I didn't invent candles so we could stay up late and doomscroll through our phones—or, well, our wax tablets—until it's almost sunrise and ti to wake up again!"
I went to our shared bed pallet, but had to stop when Ambrosia suddenly stopped in my way. She was looking at with an intense expression that could only an…
"You still didn't give your seed today, although I'm ready to grow more eggs."
Oh, it was one of these days! But…
My shoulders fell.
For the first ti since appearing in this world, I didn't feel up to it! I was running myself ragged all day with all the Great Purge logistics, and now had to listen to bittersweet news, and now could only look at Ambrosia pitifully. And a bit guiltily.
"Maybe this morning, Amby?"
She frowned.
"Communism demands that I have your seed and replenish our losses with more daughters. We need to replenish our losses."
"Ambyyyyy, but I'm so tired! My head hurts from all the shouting I had to hear today…"
Ambrosia looked over from top to bottom, then suddenly reached out and pald my head. She patted it all over, and I just let her, puzzled.
Was she trying to find why my head hurt?
Eventually, she stepped back and pointed at the bed pallet.
"Alright, then just lay there and relax, Nectus. You might even go to sleep. I will do everything myself."
Let's just say that Hive Supremo's population continued to grow.
***
Tomorrow, I organized a small funeral for my dead daughters in the quarantine village. With dancing and singing, as our tradition dictated.
Worriesgone was getting better and better thanks to the plant dicine, but still could only watch the funeral celebrations.
***
The Great Purge took a total of 8 days.
8 days of running myself ragged, although less so than on the first day.
Material Foragers picked every adow clean for kiloters away from the hive. The damage to ecology was—I didn't care.
One by one, my bees carried drugged honey to remote hives and picked clean their inhabitants.
anwhile, Tabletina and her assistant surgeons (an unofficial title) cut out brood cells. The most convenient ti for that was when the inhabitants were asleep, but even without it, they could enter these hives—as I expected.
By the ti the last hive was cleansed, three generations of cleansed pupae had erged in Hive Supremo.
By the end of them, 11 of my daughters and 13 granddaughters in Hive Hornet's Nest have died way before their ti in these generations.
There were many more dead little bees in subjugated hives—weak genes of ordinary bees made it harder for them to live through the purge. There was no one who would've counted them when all literate bees in the subjugated hives were so busy already.
All in all…
The Bee Empire had erged from the Great Purge cleansed and pure.
〔Bee Empire〕
〔Wellness〕: 65 %
〔Population〕: 380 thousand
〔Territory〕: 48042 sq. kiloters
〔Settlent count〕: 22
〔Developnt level〕: 4
〔Developnt points〕: 293 / 1000
〔Species〕: Common Honey Bee
〔Attributes〕
> Workpower: 1698
> Military: 251
> Brainpower: 801
> Logistics: 304
> Resilience: 404
〔Resources〕:
> Food: 2142 units
> Building materials: 224 units
> Crafting materials: 21 units
〔Colony Council〕
〔Military Adviser〕: increases total military by 10%. (Bloodhero)
〔Science Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to brainpower. (Researchina)
〔Industry Adviser〕: increases total workpower by 10%. (Things-Things)
〔Economics Adviser〕: adds 10% of total workpower to military. (Workharder)
〔Culture Adviser〕: increases all total attributes and wellness by 3%. (Ambrosia)
〔Technologies〕
Dance Communication, Hive Building, Food Preservation, Forager Posts, Rank-Based Hierarchy, Border Patrols, Candles, Primitive Spiked Armor, Primitive dicine, Work Camps, Literacy, Scientific thod, Basic Hygiene, Technology of Stone Age, Archives, dicinal Plants
〔〕〔〕〔〕
I looked over my Empire's stats, smiled, and began to copy them on a wax tablet.
Finally, the Empire's wellness was returning to the norm. The task of purging 18 hives put a heavy strain on the resources of the Bee Empire, but we lived past it.
The only thing lacking were fires for burning mite bodies, but that'd be just a waste. They were composting instead.
My good mood went dim suddenly.
'I have 102 days left thanks to all this—less if I want to keep my "wizard's staff" in working order. And the pandemic started in the first place because I was in too much of a hurry! If it was contained to Hive Supremo, things would've been much easier to deal with!'
If only I have checked the outer hives personally before letting my little princesses take them over. If only I paid more attention to the wellbeing of my bees before pupae got infected…
There was so much to regret. In my hurry to get to developnt level 5, I made a lot of mistakes.
'Regrets are a waste of ti. Just be glad that this is finally over!'
I nodded to myself and resolutely continued writing.
'My developnt points were moving up and down this entire ti, and our food stores have fallen low… But now I can finally start building stuff back!'
Suddenly…
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